The author of Psalm 118 anticipated the joy and the hope which would accompany the arrival of the Savior:
Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
Psalm 118:25-26
The Hebrew phrase translated as “Save now” in this passage—hoshia na (הוֹשִׁ֘יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א)—appears in Greek as hosanna (ὡσαννά).
As Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, riding on a donkey, many people welcomed Him joyfully. “Many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way” (Mark 11:8). Some people “took branches of palm trees” [as they] “went forth to meet him” (John 12:13). As He entered the city, the people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9). A short man named Zacchæus even climbed a tree, because he was worried he wouldn’t see Jesus through the crowd. (See Luke 19:2-4.)
When Jesus visited a group of people on the American continent, they also responded with enthusiasm. “They did cry out with one accord, saying: Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him” (3 Nephi 11:16). And on the second day of His visit, “There were many, yea, an exceedingly great number, did labor exceedingly all that night, that they might be on the morrow in the place where Jesus should show himself unto the multitude” (3 Nephi 19:3).
At the very end of the Bible, the Apostle John, who had witnessed firsthand the Savior’s entry into Jerusalem, looks ahead with eagerness to the Savior’s Second Coming:
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22:20
Today, as I celebrate Palm Sunday, I will welcome the Savior into my home and into my heart. I will strive to be receptive to the words and music of general conference, especially the words of President Russell M. Nelson.
Book of Mormon Study Notes 